The chief jailer of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, Comrade Duch, who oversaw the mass murder of at least 14,000 Cambodians at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, has died.
Duch, who was 77 and in poor health, died at a hospital in Phnom Penh in the early hours of Wednesday.
The commander had been the first Khmer Rouge figure to be held accountable by a court for atrocities committed under the ultra-communist regime, which killed an estimated 1.7 million people, a quarter of Cambodia’s population, between 1975 and 1979.
His death was “a reminder that justice is a long and difficult” process, said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which conducts research on the Khmer Rouge regime. “Perhaps it can bring some satisfaction to the living, and the fallen can now rest in peace,” Youk said.
